Judgement
by isdonisgood
Summary: Logan finally makes good on a promise to leave home when he turns eighteen.


Spoilers: Do you know that Lilly died, that Logan was getting abused by Aaron, that Veronica and Logan dated the summer before senior year? If you know all this feel free to exile everything else you know about Veronica for the duration of this fic 'cause it's not necessary.

Author's Note: This is written for Round #5's episode challenge on vmfic_gameon. Also this was beta'd by the wonderful and marvellous thegraduate09 who beta'd this not once but twice because of some technical difficulties we where both having.

**Disclaimer: As much as I wish and hope and plead that it will be mine it is not :(.**

"That's the last of it," Logan said as he slammed the boot to Duncan's Range Rover shut.

"Dude! Watch the car." Duncan replied, a little frustrated that his friend wasn't taking care of his most valuable possession.

"Whatever, dude. There's one more box in my room and then I'll meet you at the new place when Veronica comes back to pick me up, ok?" Logan said, rolling his eyes at his friend's antics.

Dick walked over and slapped him on the back before saying, "Doesn't it feel good to be leaving him?"

"Yeah man, it feels really good. Now get out of here before Beav starts having a hissy fit." Logan demanded before turning away and heading back to his house.

Sighing, he never realised how good his friends were to him until he had declared he was leaving home. Then, without any warning or pleading, Dick, Beaver, Wallace and Duncan had offered to help. Things had finally started to relax between him and Duncan after Lilly's murder investigation was over and even though neither of them were saying it, they were beginning to go back to how they were before Lilly died. Dick and Beaver were a given, as the brothers were known to help Logan with whatever he needed, even if there was always an underlying hostility between the brothers. It was Wallace's inclusion that seemed strange to the other three. The boy moving and the one offering were the only ones who understood why. Over the summer when he had been dating Veronica, he and Wallace had started to hang out. For some reason, when Veronica dumped him, Wallace didn't follow his best friend into ignoring the ex-boyfriend. Instead, the pair still hung out on a regular basis and even became lab partners in Mr Woo's science class.

Listening as the cars finally started their engines and left, Logan couldn't help but marvel at what had occurred here today. Sure, it was a week after his eighteenth birthday and sure, his dad was convinced that he wasn't going to do it but here he was, a condo at the beach side waiting for him to just leave this place filled with horrible memories. He would have left sooner but the real estate agent was dead against letting a seventeen-year-old sign a lease for a condo, let alone one who wasn't emancipated and had a trust fund that was tied up until his eighteen birthday.

The biggest surprise for everyone this morning, though, was when Veronica showed up to help out. Not having told her about the move, Logan was a little confused until he remembered who her best friend was. He had spent the morning treating Wallace like the traitor he was until Wallace had whispered to him that he hadn't told Veronica what was going on, she had just shown up at his door that morning ready to lend a hand. He still couldn't believe it but it was true. Now he just had to figure out why she was doing it. After all, they weren't on good terms when they spilt and they had barely said a word to each other since. Still, a part of him had hoped that her nosey-ness would lead her to help him finally shake the last few demons of his past free.

Walking slowly through the house, he took the time to remember some of the better things that had happened to him there. How his mother had always had the cook make him chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast the morning after his father had beat him. Or how the two of them would lounge around the pool when his father was away filming. They would dream up the life they could have if they were free of Aaron. In a way, Logan couldn't help but feel that he was losing a part of his mom by leaving, but he knew that her dream was for him to be free one day, even if she couldn't join him.

Moving quickly up the stairs, he entered his room and paused to remember another girl he had lost. Thinking of Lilly used to always make him cry but now it didn't so much. He was finally shaking himself free off her, especially after he had learnt that Thumper had killed her. It somehow made him at ease. It really shouldn't have, knowing that the boy who killed Lilly, the first girl he had ever loved, had only done it 'cause he found out that he wasn't the only one she was sleeping with. Of course, Thumper had known about Logan, everyone did, but he didn't know about Weevil. On October third Weevil had accidentally let it slip that he had also been sleeping with her. So Thumper had headed to the Kane mansion to have it out with Lilly but instead ended up bashing her skull in with a glass ashtray.

Looking around, he couldn't believe how sentimental he was feeling about the place. For all its bad faults though, like his father and the constant beatings, it still had some good ones, like the times he had spent here with his mum and the Fab Four. It didn't seem that long ago that Mrs. Navarro was making the four of them chocolate brownies, due to Veronica's head tilt, and they were making plans on what to do with their summer. Of course, most of the time they hadn't decided before the brownies were brought out so they ended up doing nothing but lounging around the pool and enjoying each other's company. Those would always be some of the best times of his life. A time before teenage angst and murder ruled the lives of the Fab Four so completely, pushing the remaining three to their extremes. It was sad and a little confronting that one event could change them all so much. At the same time, though, it was nice that they were all finding their way back to normal, or so Logan thought. He was pretty sure Veronica and Duncan didn't think of such things. He was ok with that but sometimes, when he was alone, he admitted to himself that he didn't know how they could be so ignorant of their changes.

Grabbing the box from the floor and his mother's lighter, which he had left on the only piece of remaining furniture, an old, beaten down dresser his father had given him, Logan sighed and exited his room, and all the memories it contained, for the last time. Moving into the kitchen he placed the box on the stool, pocketed the lighter, and pulled out a piece of paper. Jotting down a quick note, he left it sitting on the counter for his father. Then, carrying the box to the front doorway, he left it on the ground. He had one more place to visit. One last demon to face before he was ready to leave.

Making his way slowly towards his father's office, he stopped just before reaching it. Slowly, he turned to face the belt closet. For some reason, he could never understand why his father needed a separate closet to memorialise the belts he used on Logan's back. Try as he might not to, in time Logan had ended up giving each individual names. The belt solely made out of snake leather had became 'The Snake', the belt with ribs had become known as 'Ribby', the belt that had two prongs sticking out of the buckle had become 'Horny.' No matter how hard he tried, though, there was one belt that he couldn't name. Whether it was because he was too scared that it would make all the punishments by that belt real or because he had never been able to think up one in the time it took him to choose a belt and head to the office, either way he wanted to name the belt before he left. Pulling it out, he looked over it. There was nothing particularly special about the belt. It was made from what felt like Italian leather. It was not too thick but not too thin. There was nothing special about the buckle but for some reason he always pulled this one out when he had done really bad things. Like the time he had organised bum fights and pledged a quarter of a million dollars in his father's name to the local homeless shelter.

For some unknown reason this belt was always reserved for the worst beatings of his life.

In hindsight, maybe that's why he had always been unable to name it but now he felt that it was the last thing he had to do in this mansion before starting fresh elsewhere. Thinking it over, he couldn't help but compare the belt to his father, after all, the belt gave him some of the worst pain in his life, like his father, and the belt was always there when he screwed up, just like his father. The pair of them were always rubbing his failures in his face and showing him how worthless he was, not just at school but at life in general.

"Are you ready to go?" Veronica asked, startling him, from her place by his last box.

Looking down at the belt, then back at Veronica, he nodded, "Yeah. Let's blow this hellhole," before placing the belt back in its place, its name finally engraved in his heart.

Hearing Veronica leave, he whispered it to the belt gently, just as he had done to the others, before turning to follow her out to her car, his last box in his hands. And as he and Veronica pulled out of the Echolls driveway for the last time, one word lingered in the place.

"Judgment."

And Logan finally felt free.

The end!

A/N in case anyone is curious I changed Lilly's killer because I felt Aaron needed to still be in Logan's life for this to work and to do that it I figured I needed a new killer for Lilly so that that part of his life could have an ending of sorts.


End file.
